Hastings ace wins bronze for England

Simon Newstead

Athletics ace Elise Lovell is basking in the glory of winning her first international medal.

The Hastings Athletic Club multi-eventer bagged a bronze in the women's long jump at the Manchester International.

She said: "The aim was to do myself proud and jump well enough to maybe challenge for the medals so I was really pleased to come away with a medal."

Competing in the evening for the first time, Lovell's best effort of 5.67m was just five centimetres adrift of runner-up Holly Mills (GB Juniors) and 26 behind Katie Stainton (Birchfield Harriers). Conditions were good with hardly any wind for the athletes to contend with.

"I feel like I jumped as well as I could at that track," she continued. "The distances were down for everybody and from previous experience at that track, it's not a brilliant track to jump at. I think I did well."

England were the overall winners with 277 points, 68 more than the second-placed combined British Athletics League/UK Women’s League team. The line-up was completed by GB Juniors, Wales, Scotland, Ulster & Northern Ireland and UK Armed Forces.

Lovell was selected for the event after setting a new Sussex record at the Counties Athletics Union Championships in Bedford. She was the first Sussex female to go through the six-metre barrier with a leap of 6.02m en route to a bronze medal.

The 24-year-old has now just about come to the end of a pretty busy outdoor season and is 'really pleased' with how it's gone.

"After the stress fracture in my foot (which caused her to withdraw from her defence of the England Senior Combined Events Championships in May), I thought that's going to be the end," she admitted. "But to come away selected to represent England in an individual event and get a bronze medal was a big surprise."

* MAYA Ramnarine, of Hastings Athletic Club, produced a personal best performance on Sussex duty at the weekend. The 13-year-old clocked a time of 2:27 to come fifth in the 800m in the under-15 age group at an inter-counties match in Oxford.

Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be amongst the first to know what’s going on.